Access to water remains one of the most crucial issues facing the horticulture sector.

That is according to Michelle Sands, Horticulture NZ’s policy and strategy manager, who said while the issue can create tension, she believes the sector is well placed having demonstrated it is an efficient user of water and adopts best management practices.

“Access to reliable water is so important to production but needs to be managed so waterways are healthy,” she said.

The sector body is watching closely changes the government is making to freshwater policy settings.

“It’s about efficient use of water, how it is efficiently allocated and, in some places maybe aspirations to have less water taken in the future, but how that will be designed over time.”

Sands said there also needs to be recognition that grower farms cover a small area that is intensively farmed.

In some regions, such as Pukekohe, farms straddle several councils, which have their own rules and regulations that can differ depending on the jurisdiction.

The sector is currently in the Environment Court with the Horizons Regional Council over water quality controls, and it is working with the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council over issues of water extraction, minimum flows and storage conditions on the Heretaunga Plains.

She said they generally have good relationships with regional councils.

HortNZ has asked the government to establish a national direction for vegetable production to manage the sector’s effects and to standardise rules.

Sands has worked for HortNZ for six years following a career in freshwater science and environmental engineering.

That background gave her a grasp of the issues facing HortNZ.

“Within that freshwater experience, I did a lot of work on resource management mostly for resource users.”

Her role has extended to other issues facing growers, such as policies impacting regional and district planning that impact amenities such as crop protection structures and discharges to air, land and water.

The National Policy Statement on highly productive land is potentially another contentious issue, but Sands said HortNZ’s stance is not about locking this land away, but ensuring some is prioritised for primary production.

“Our focus is not about obstructing urban development by using the highly productive land provisions but using it to prioritise some areas for primary production.”

The coalition government’s policy priorities have certainly upped the workload for grower bodies like HortNZ.

Genetic engineering, the Resource Management Act, freshwater and labour are all under review, alongside industry staples food safety, biosecurity and agrichemicals.

“They are very broad ranging and wide topics.”

Sands is under no illusion that horticulture ticks the boxes of being low emitting and efficient users of water and a low environmental impact.

“We have no problem with the horticulture sector operating within environmental inputs but it’s a matter of making sure the policy settings make sense.”

Voting has opened for two vacant directorship positions on DairyNZ’s board.

This year, three candidates – Jacqueline Rowarth, Tirau; Richard McIntyre, Levin; and  Kylie Leonard, Taupō – are vying for the two vacant positions.  

Farmers have until noon on Thursday, October 17, to cast their votes.

Voter packs have been sent out since September 19. Dairy farmers can vote online or by post. 

This year, DairyNZ is hosting a Meet the Candidates webinar, on Friday, September 20, at 7pm, providing an opportunity to ask questions of the potential directors.

DairyNZ’s board consists of five farmer-elected directors and three board-appointed directors. This year, Jim van der Poel is retiring, and Jacqueline Rowarth is retiring by rotation and is re-standing.

Outside of the candidate vote, there are four resolutions for farmers to ratify in their vote pack, including the appointment of independent director David Hunt and changes to the rules of DairyNZ to reflect new regulatory changes and capture recent feedback from farmers.

Further details on the resolutions and proposed changes are available in the Notice of Meeting booklet in farmer voting packs and online.  

Environment Southland is investigating a possible wallaby sighting near Te Anau after a contractor identified possible wallaby scat and a detector dog found the potential presence of an animal in the area. 

Environment Southland said a wallaby has, however, not been confirmed by professional sighting.

Biosecurity and biodiversity operations manager at Environment Southland Ali Meade said wallabies are exclusion pests in Southland, meaning there are no established populations.

Meade urged locals not to go out looking for the potential pest, but let trained professionals do their work.

“Public interference risks the success of the operation and increases health and safety issues during the work. It also puts our efforts to maintain wallabies as an exclusion pest at risk,” Meade said.

Wallabies can cause significant economic and environmental impacts as they eat grass, native shrubs and trees. They can damage pasture and fences, add to erosion issues and damage young tree seedlings.

There have been two reports of wallabies near Te Anau this year, with three reports on the Te Anau-Mossburn Highway since 2022. 

No wallabies were found after any of the reports, except for a live wallaby found in Invercargill in 2016.

China has initiated an investigation into the dairy subsidies provided by the European Union and several of its member states.

The investigation could reshape the global dairy trade landscape with increased trade tensions potentially benefitting dairy exporters from Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, according to a new report by Rabobank.

The investigation focuses on the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy and national plans of eight countries and is in response to the European Union’s decision to hike tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles.

However, market impacts are unlikely to be felt until at least 2026 – if at all. 

The report,  Navigating Trade Tension: Potential impacts of China’s probe into EU dairy subsidies, says the EU’s recent announcement that it will increase tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles has led to a counter-reaction.

“With the EU tariffs set to rise significantly, China’s Ministry of Commerce has launched an investigation into EU dairy subsidies that could have far-reaching consequences for European exports. 

“The targeted products, including liquid cream and various cheeses, represent a significant trade value of US$572.5 million [$917m] as of 2023,” report co-author senior agricultural analyst Emma Higgins said.

While the report says the current investigation does not encompass the highest-volume categories such as whey-derived products and milk powders, there is concern within the industry that China may broaden its investigation.

“The investigation, expected to run through most of 2025, leaves the door open for potential market impacts by 2026. France, as a major exporter, could be significantly affected, given its 37% share in the targeted product exports,” Higgins said.

“Meanwhile, some dairy industry participants are concerned that China could expand the scope of investigation-targeted products.”

As the investigation unfolds, non-EU dairy exporters including Australia, New Zealand, the UK, and the US are poised to capitalise on any resulting trade shifts.

Should there be any additional tariffs implemented, products sourced from  Oceania could be more competitively priced.

“As it stands, New Zealand and Australia already export large volumes of cheese and cream into China and would therefore be well-placed to step in and fill any trade gaps that might arise,” she said.

China’s domestic dairy industry is currently experiencing overproduction relative to demand. This has prompted a strategic shift towards value-added dairy products to better utilise the surplus and potentially reduce reliance on imports. 

“The ongoing trade tensions with the EU may inadvertently accelerate this transition, offering a silver lining for local Chinese dairy producers and exporters from other nations,” Higgins said.

Spring is certainly here and we’re experiencing what I think is a classic September weather pattern, dominated by storms over the Southern Ocean and strong to gale-force westerly winds surging off and on.  

The storms south of New Zealand remain enormous – both in size and depth of air pressure. Most lows south of the country have been around the 940 to 950 hPa range now for several weeks. Usually we get a few like that, then that’s it. 

You’ve probably seen and heard the words “polar vortex” used a lot this year. The polar vortex is like elastic holding the cold in place around Antarctica – and this year it’s lost that tightness and has more of a wavy shape to it. 

Each time the wave goes up from Antarctica it shifts the boundary of cold air and low pressure into the NZ area – and this week that produced a significant winter outbreak over the country with hail, snow and bitterly cold wind chill for newborn livestock.

There is no sign of these storms coming to an end any time soon. The lower air pressure to the south of NZ and Australia isn’t just there only – it exists all the way around coastal Antarctica, with low air pressure storms south of South America and South Africa. 

With so much low pressure south of us it means more isobars on the weather maps in our part of the world – and that’s why we’re experiencing the windy westerlies much more this year. They tilt northwest, we get warmer and windier days. They tilt southwest and the Southern Alps get another dusting of snow and Southland and Otago shoulder the colder gloom again for most of the country.

Over the coming week the weather pattern takes a bit of a breather – at least to start with. High pressure looks to briefly cross the country bringing a spell of calm after so many weeks of wind. But it’s short lived, and by later this week the severe gale nor’westers return with the chance of more rain and cold fronts. 

While not locked in at the time of writing this, there was evidence in the long-range maps that by next weekend a low will form over NZ as another colder, wintry, southerly comes back in. 

There is some good news for those who want a break from the unsettled weather. Long-range data does hint that as October arrives so too does high pressure from Australia. I’m reluctant to lock it in just yet, but GFS modelling out of America suggests New Zealand may well get a calmer period of weather to kick off October thanks to a powerful anticyclone that may be closer to 1040hPa. We shall see. Always good to have a silver lining amongst all this chaos. 

Upcoming Highlights from September 23:

• Brief high pressure

• Windy nor’westers and rain

• Possible weekend low

• Possible powerful high-pressure zone moving slowly across NZ next week

The Waikato Regional Council’s upper Waiomou catchment habitat enhancement project has ended, having restored 48km of waterways along the Tukutāpere, Rapurapu and Waiomou streams.

The four-year project worked with landowners to retire and plant out riparian margins along those waterways by controlling overgrown willow and poplar trees and other pest plants, and by planting out a native corridor in their place.

The council’s Hauraki catchments unit lead, Mike Houghton, said all the landowners were really generous with their setbacks, retiring larger margins than they had been asked to.

“This uptake and dedication meant we exceeded all our project targets, but by going above and beyond, we’ve been able to increase the project’s benefits. 

“The wider margins can intercept more nutrients and run-off from reaching waterways. We’ve retired additional steep slopes, which helps to prevent soil erosion, and we’ve been able to create way more habitat and corridors for our native wildlife.”

The completion of the upper Waiomou habitat enhancement project was celebrated on September 13 with a group of landowners, stakeholders, contractors and staff visiting some of the restoration sites.

The project included partnership funding from the Ministry for the Environment, Fonterra and Ngā Whenua Rāhui, which was able to provide landowners with up to 80% of the costs of the restoration work completed.

The objectives of the project were:

• The removal and thinning of overgrown poplars and willows that were either choking streams or at risk of collapse.

• Stock exclusion by fencing to keep stock away from stream sides.

• Pest plant control, by combining mulching and herbicide treatment to control a range of pest plants.

• Re-vegetation of riparian margins with native plants to connect the Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park to the Waihou River.

In total, 36 environmental programme agreements with landowners enabled 49 hectares of land to be controlled for pest plants and retired, including 48km of fencing and revegetation with 225,344 native plants.

Te Hanga North Lands Trust trustee Les Kinred said that when Waikato Regional Council first asked about retiring riparian margins on Māori-owned land, “we were mighty suspicious”.

“But the information and advice they provide, and the mapping and the planning, it all proves to be very helpful,” Kinred said, with the trust retiring 3.5ha along 1.1km of stream length and putting nearly 15,000 plants into the ground. 

Landowner Peter Bellamy said the project has been really worthwhile.

He retired 1.4km along both sides of the Waiomou Stream with setbacks of up to 20m. The area had a lot of large privet trees on his land, along with bindweed and Japanese honey suckle.

“I realise the maintenance of the plants is coming back to me but that seems easy compared to the work that has been done.

“And finding out about the native bat population, from an ecological assessment, that was a real buzz moment.”

Hauraki Coromandel catchments manager Emily O’Donnell said the initial driver of the project was to deal with a legacy issue relating to the planting of poplar and willows along streams banks.

“Many had reached maturity, were oversized and tipping over, exposing riverbanks and exacerbating erosion.

“None of this work would have possible without the vision and generosity of the landowners, who opened their farm gates and welcomed our staff and contractors.”

Arran Trust is recalling specific batches of its Arran Farm brand raw (unpasteurised) drinking milk, as the product may contain Campylobacter.

New Zealand Food Safety acting deputy director-general Jenny Bishop said the concern with the unpasteurised milk is that Campylobacter, a foodborne bacterium, can make you sick.

The affected product is Arran Farm raw drinking milk sold between August 23 and September 17. The milk was sold through a vending machine at Arran Farm Milk Shop in Feilding. It has not been exported.

“This raw milk should not be consumed. Return it to Arran Farm for a refund or, if that’s not possible, throw it out,” Bishop said.

“You can also heat the raw milk until just boiling for one minute to kill any bacteria present before drinking it. Drinking raw milk carries inherent risks as it may contain harmful bacteria that are killed through the pasteurisation process.”

Symptoms of Campylobacter infection are vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, fever, headache and body aches.

If you have consumed any of this product and are concerned for your health, contact your health professional, or call Healthline on 0800 61 11 16 for free advice.

The product under recall was identified through routine testing.

“As is our usual practice, we will work with Arran Trust to understand how the contamination occurred and to prevent its recurrence,” Bishop said.

Raw milk is not pasteurised, which means it misses out on an important process that kills harmful bacteria.  

As the march of pine trees across productive farmland continues to snuff out jobs and undermine rural communities, David Hayes is also increasingly concerned about the risk of fire. 

The Federated Farmers Wairarapa president and keen pilot says when he flies his aeroplane north or east from Masterton, it’s pines up the ranges and coast as far as he can see. 

“I’m talking contiguous, joined-up forestry. It really makes me wonder how far a wildfire could spread in a dry summer.” 

Hayes recently spent a few weeks in rural British Columbia, Canada, where the local economy is based primarily on agriculture, forestry and tourism. 

“It’s also a province that’s been suffering from the devastating impacts of large-scale forest fires,” he says.  

“Our forestry types and management may be different, but I couldn’t help but see a stark warning for us here on the east coast and other dryer parts of New Zealand where we’re seeing a lot of radiata planted.”  

His particular concern is carbon forests, which may not have the fire breaks, thinning and firefighting resources of foresters growing radiata pine for timber. 

“Farmers have every right to make their own decisions on how to use their land. 

“For sheep and beef farmers right now, the attraction of diversifying into growing trees on harder land is very understandable. 

“The issue Federated Farmers has is with those large-scale corporate farms owned by international investment entities,” Hayes says. 

“They have no real links with the local community. On too many blocks they’re planting the trees, closing the gates, and sitting back to reap the carbon revenue.” 

Beef + Lamb NZ’s latest stock number survey records a 10% decline in sheep and beef numbers in the last three years. 

A major driver has been conversion of sheep and beef farms into forestry to reap Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) benefits.  

In the three years between 2019 and 2022, about 180,000 hectares of whole sheep and beef farms were sold into forestry. 

Earlier this month Hayes attended a regional land management forum that drew Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) and forestry representatives from the lower North Island. 

“Everybody there thought carbon forests are a problem, including the production forestry guys.” 

Hayes says FENZ is stepping up communication with rural landowners and foresters, setting up Local Advisory Committees in each region. 

“The ones they struggle to connect with are the landowners and the forest owners on those carbon farms. 

“There is concern about the lack of fire-fighting capability on those farms, the lack of water ponds, buffers and so on.” 

As with farming, forestry profits are down and labour is tight.   

“So, they’re having to do different things, such as using chemical killing for thinning out the forest,” Hayes says.  

“You end up with these dead trees, still standing for three or four years, rather than lying on the forest floor where it’s wetter. That’s got to lift the fire risk.” 

A phrase used at the forum struck Hayes as something farmers need to keep in mind: ‘Your neighbours’ risk, is your risk’. 

“A fire in a forest adjoining farmland has obvious risks for farm fences, livestock, buildings – and our people.” 

The reverse is also true, of course.   

FENZ says, over the past 10 years, 65% of New Zealand wildfires were caused by escapes from agricultural burns, cooking and camping fires. 

“Warnings about controlled burn-offs, machinery exhausts in long grass, sparks from plough blades and so on may be doubly important if your farm neighbours forestry,” Hayes says. 

There’s now strong evidence that while replanting of previously forested areas continues, planting on new areas of farmland has slowed. 

An MPI survey has found the area of planned new forestry planting in 2025 could be 41% less than in 2022. 

Government tinkering with ETS settings and talk there will be no further forests on land use classes (LUC) 1-5, and a potential 15,000ha forestry quota for LUC 6, appears to have spooked investors. 

Hayes says while the Government ponders forestry and ETS policy moves, it also needs to consider obligations on carbon forest owners to manage fire risk. 

“Surely it’s reasonable to insist investors cashing in on carbon income take measures similar to production foresters, such as fire breaks and access to water ponds, to limit the fire risk to themselves and neighbours?” 

Federated Farmers, New Zealand’s leading independent rural advocacy organisation, has established a news and insights partnership with AgriHQ, the country’s leading rural publisher, to give the farmers of New Zealand a more informed, united and stronger voice. Federated Farmers news and commentary appears each week in its own section of the Farmers Weekly print edition and online.

In Focus Podcast |  Government asked to rein in councils

Federated Farmers is calling on the government to tell councils to pause work on freshwater reforms. Otago Feds member Luke Kane says with signals pointing to changes in water regulations, it makes sense for regional councils to hit the brakes.

LIC’s annual meeting saw the board and senior leadership team reflect on a tough past season where the dairy improvement co-operative faced both financial and operational challenges.

Reflecting on the co-operative’s financial performance at the meeting on September 18 in Hamilton, LIC chair Corrigan Sowman emphasised LIC’s ability to deliver a sustainable profit and a solid return for its shareholders despite a challenging economic environment.

“We are proud to have closed the year with a respectable profit of $7.7 million and a total dividend of 18.84 cents per share, thanks to prudent management and a strong balance sheet with no debt.”

Sowman acknowledged the headwinds the sector may face but expressed confidence in LIC’s resilience and future potential.

“Our co-operative is well-positioned for the challenges ahead. We remain focused on our core purpose: delivering value for our farmer shareholders. This goes beyond short-term gains – our decisions today shape the future of New Zealand’s national herd.”

The co-operative forecasts underlying earnings of $16-22m for 2024/25, barring any significant external factors. 

LIC chief financial officer Brent Mealings said there was an understandable reaction to the significant decrease in Fonterra’s forecast milk price by its shareholder customers in August and September last year. 

Total revenue was down 3.3% on last year driven largely by a decrease in demand impacting volumes across key product and service lines. 

“Our response was also to focus on controlling our costs across the business. The after-tax impact of the semen quality issue during the year was $1.5m.”

He said there were positive signs in the sector, where confidence is slowly rebuilding.

“However, it will take time for us to see the results as the short-term cash constraints on farm continue and farmers take a considered approach to spend.”

This was challenged by one farmer in the audience who questioned the senior management team on its performance.

Sowman told him the board took responsibility for past performance issues with sexed semen and while he did not want to make excuses, he said the past two to three years had been tough on all businesses.

“We’re both farmers and we know the extraordinary period of inflation that we have been through. The reality is, we haven’t had free cash.”

He was confident that the most recent investments LIC had made will lead to improvements in revenue.

“Will they ultimately respond to the headwinds we have with a declining cow population, I do not know that and we will have to continue to work hard on that.”

LIC chief executive David Chin acknowledged that the co-operative did not live up to being operationally excellent last year because of the issues it had with semen quality issue.

“Following a thorough investigation, we’ve been working hard to implement improvements across the semen processing business.”

He said winter mating went without a hitch, and he is confident there will be a successful calving season this spring. 

“The performance of our sexed semen product has also been very good. 

“Last spring, the non-return rate of fresh sexed semen was only 3% below conventional and over winter mating the non-return rate was 1.9% below the performance of conventional semen, for straws inseminated in the same herd on the same day.

“This is really pleasing as sexed semen will play a big role in accelerating genetic gain and allows farmers to get more heifer replacements from their best cows.

“Except for the semen quality issue, it was a very good year operationally for LIC.”

The meeting saw Mike O’Connor elected as director for the North Island region and Tony Coltman as director for the South Island region as well as Kirsten Watson elected as the Upper North Island territory shareholder reference group (SRG) representative.

The SRG is an elected and appointed body of shareholders established to promote shareholder interests and assist LIC to deliver on its purpose and vision.

Two Hawke’s Bay residents will be serving community time for crimes against horses in their care.

The pair were sentenced in Hastings District Court last week, for failing to provide protection against injury or disease for four horses and failing to provide sufficient water for three more horses.

Having both pleaded guilty to multiple charges, one offender was sentenced to 200 hours community work and the other to 100 hours community work. Both were disqualified from owning equids (horses, asses and donkeys et al) for a period of five years.

“The state of these horses brings tears to the eyes,” SPCA chief executive Todd Westwood said. “The pain will have been constant and inescapable.”

After a call from a concerned member of the public an SPCA inspector visited a property on January 6, 2023 and found seven miniature horses grazing in a paddock with overgrown grass, tall thistles and shrubs.

There was no water provided for the horses.

The inspector gave water to the horses which they drank rapidly and to excess. The inspector also noted four of the seven horses had severely overgrown hooves curled upwards at the toes. The horses were reluctant to move and their ability to walk normally was compromised.

The inspector then removed the four horses from the address for veterinarian examinations.

It was found that all horses showed symptoms of dehydration and were lame from chronic laminitis. Some of their hooves were split, adding to their intense and unnecessary pain.

The vet concluded that the horses suffered from severe and chronic neglect.

Over the ensuing five months, 12 re-inspections at the address revealed the three remaining horses did not have enough water.

On May 30, 2023, the three horses were removed from the property.

The offenders were also ordered to pay reparations of $4,761.07 and $800 towards legal costs.